Callie's Rules Book

Callie’s Rules for Things to Do in Middle School:
·Have lots of pictures in your phone.
·Get a phone.
Callie Jones is excited about her first day of sixth grade, but from the moment she arrives and is greeted by dirty looks (apparently, you don’t ride your bike to middle school), she realizes that there are a set of unwritten rules that everyone seems to know–everyone except her. So Callie decides she’ll write a list of the rules, and she’ll never go wrong again.
At home, Callie’s close-knit family is making big Halloween plans, until the parents of snotty Valeri Van Dine convince the Town Council to cancel Halloween and replace it with Autumn Fest, a celebration of wholesome “American” values.
Callie doesn’t think their arguments make much sense, and the Council keeps making rules so they don’t have to listen. So Callie decides it’s time to make some rules of her own.

Publishers Weekly

Raised in a liberal household by their artist mother and attorney father, 11-year-old Callie and her six siblings have always been encouraged to be free thinkers, and in middle school, Callie feels stifled by rules. The new set of social norms she believes she must follow to fit in—“Don’t ride your bike to middle school”; “When you take a test, take your time. The worst thing in the world is to be finished ahead of everybody else”—are as repugnant to her as the restrictions set forth by her teacher and uninspiring principal. Not wanting to stick out from her classmates or seem strange, Callie reluctantly tries to blend in until plans to replace Halloween with Autumn Fest (promoting “good, wholesome, God-centered American values”) force her to stand up for what she believes. Independent-minded readers will relate to the disgruntled heroine as she hatches a plan to bring fun and creativity back to Halloween. Zucker (Benno’s Bear) paints morals and characterizations in broad, familiar strokes, but the antics of Callie and her large, boisterous family keep the material fresh. Ages 8–12. (Aug.)